MEMBER OF SEAASWP Network: Southeast Asia, Austrasia and Southwest Pacific Network

The Southeast Asian Geography Association (SEAGA) is a scientific and educational society set up in 1990 by a group of geographers to organise the inaugural SEAGA Conference in Brunei Darussalam. Its members share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography and geographic education. As of February 2006, the association is formally registered with Singapore’s Registrar of Societies.

At present, SEAGA is an organisation which does not collect subscription fees from its official members. From 1990 to 2005, Professor Goh Kim Chuan, as the President of the association, has been instrumental in exploring and prodding geography departments in the region to host the international conferences. In this respect, the response from such departments has been most encouraging. The history of SEAGA could be traced to the first International conference on Geography in the Southeast Asian region organised by the Department of Geography, Universiti Brunei Darussalam in 1990. Since then the Association has been active in encouraging as well helping to organise the SEAGA biennial conferences in countries within ASEAN. The list of conferences held and venues include:

• 1990 Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam
• 1992 University of Jogjakarta, Indonesia
• 1994 University of Malaya, Malaysia
• 1996 Chiang Mai University, Thailand
• 1998 National Institute of Education/NUS, Singapore
• 2001 Universiti Bangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
• 2004 Khon Kaen University, Thailand
• 2006 National Institute of Education, Singapore

The 2006 Conference was held in Singapore and was very well received. Sustainability and Southeast Asia is the conference theme in 2006 and we had 11 keynote and plenary addresses, 14 specialist panel session comprising 52 papers and 78 open session papers presenting multidimensional perspectives of sustainability from scholars, policy makers and entrepreneurs as well as researchers and teachers. There were in all 141 papers and presentations over three days of the conference which will be attended by more than 300 academics, social activists, teachers and students from over 23 countries in Asia and beyond.

These meetings provided a platform for researchers on any aspect of Southeast Asia, from within or outside the region to share their research findings in geography or related areas. The international character of these conferences has been unmistakable as there is strong interests from fellow geographers from many countries outside Southeast Asia. The conferences also affords an opportunity for geographers to connect with each other and through the network enhance cooperation in joint research, student fieldwork or even staff exchange. One aspect SEAGA has been encouraging is to make the conferences accessible to geography teachers in each of the host countries as well as graduate students either through their direct participation in sharing their research findings or having a complementary one-day workshop on some aspects of the teaching of topics in geography. In this way, the Association hopes to improve and revitalise the status of geography in the region.